Oil and gas strike looms as talks falter

A strike is on the cards in a showdown between companies supplying offshore oil and gas rigs, and the maritime union in Western Australia.

The Australian Mines and Metals Association, representing employers, said the Maritime Union of Australia was threatening to take “damaging strike action" in a dispute over wages and the use of foreign workers.

AMMA said the industry believed the MUA was preparing to replicate its 2009-10 campaign, which cost employers up to $750,000 a day and forced them to agree to a 30 per cent pay rise.

But MUA assistant secretary
Will Tracey
said the union had sought to defer any industrial action as a show of good faith in negotiations with marine contractor Tidewater.

Negotiations began more than year ago for an agreement likely to determine conditions of about 2500 seafarers who work on the vessels supplying the oil and gas rigs. Tidewater is one of the 22 companies servicing WA’s offshore projects, including Chevron’s $52 billion Gorgon.

Late on Wednesday, AMMA executive director
Richard Berriman
said the union had rejected a 16.5 per cent wage increase offer over four years, which was “well above inflation and prevailing increases in other industries".

“In late 2013 in proceedings before the Fair Work Commission, the offshore maritime vessel operators presented a generous wage offer and agreement proposal to the MUA," he said. “This has now been rejected and the union is threatening to take ­damaging strike action that will have significant cost impacts on Australia’s offshore oil and gas sector."

Mr Tracey said the union had reduced its pay claim and deferred industrial action to reach a deal.

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He said after 30 conferences and meetings with the Fair Work Commission, the union had offered to drop its pay claim to 5.5 per cent a year over the life of a four-year agreement.

Tidewater had previously offered 4.5 per cent for the first year and 4 per cent for the next three, Mr Tracey said.

He said the union was granted a ballot in November and members voted for industrial action. To be legal, a strike must be within 30 days of the ballot being declared. The union has applied to the commission to defer such action for another 30 days, Mr Tracey said.

He said Tidewater needed to agree to “employ properly trained and qualified local workers before foreign crews were considered" to avert a strike.

“We understand that it’s in the industry’s interest to employ overseas workers to cut costs and return bigger profits to shareholders," he said.

Mr Berriman said the agreement on the table addressed the MUA’s ­concerns about foreign labour.

“The industry takes seriously the repeated assertions of the MUA about foreign labour and presented a number of proposals that met their concerns about job security for Australian workers. It was mutually understood to be agreed in principle, yet the MUA rejected the offer anyway," he said.

“The MUA’s unrealistic claims and strike threats do nothing to make ­Australia a more attractive place to invest in new oil and gas projects, which potentially bring thousands of jobs and enormous economic benefits for local communities," Mr Berriman said.